230 SOILS 



Box drains are made of three or four 2-inch 

 planks, with short pieces of laths between the 

 larger joints to provide an opening for the water 

 to enter the dram. They are cheaper than stone 

 drains, but quickly decay. On newly cleared 

 land, brush and pole drains are occasionally used, 

 especially if chestnut or cedar wood is abundant. 

 The brush is piled in the bottom of a ditch and 

 covered with soil. Pole drains are made by laying 

 three small logs so as to form a channel. Botn 

 are crude and temporary at best, giving poor or 

 fair service for only a few years. "Mole drains," 

 made by drawing a conical piece of wood through 

 the soil by steam power at a depth of two or three 

 feet, have been known to do fairly good work for 

 several years in clay soils, but they cost nearly half 

 as much as tile drainage and are not permanent. 

 All these kinds of drains are most successful on 

 clay soils. After having gone to the expense of 

 digging a ditch it is far more practicable in most 

 cases to put in tile drains, which are durable and 

 efficient, instead of these uncertain substitutes. 



DRAINING POT HOLES 



A problem which many farmers would like to 

 have solved is how to drain low places which are 

 surrounded on all sides by land so high that it is 

 entirely inexpedient to cut through it for an outlet. 

 In many cases it will cost more to drain such places 

 than they will be worth afterwards, but sometimes 

 it will be worth while to try one of the following 

 methods: If the land is made wet almost entirely 

 by surface drainage, it may pay to dig a ditcn 

 around it to intercept the surface water. If it is 

 found that there is a bed of sand or gravel within 



